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UK  CAUSE  IN  HARMONY  WITH  THE  PURPOSES  OF  GOD  INT  CHRIST  JESUS. 


A  SERMON 


■^■i         __  


1  umM  m  iftwt  #1 


On  Thursday,  September  18th,  1862, 

BEING   THE   DAY   SET   FORTH   NY   THE 

PRESIDENT  OF  THE  CONFEDERATE  STATES, 

AS   A   HAY    OF 

PRAYER  AND  THANKSGIVING, 

m  OUR  MANIFOLD  VICTORIES,  AND  ESPECIALLY  FOE  THE  FIELDS  OP 

MANASSAS    AND    RICHMOND,  Kv. 

BY     THE 

Rt.  Rev.  STEPHEN   ELLIOTT,  13.  D., 

Sfctor  of  Cfjrist  (S^urdi,  anU  Bishop  of  tf)f  Siorm  of  Georgia. 


'Why  do  the  heathen  rage;  and  the  people  imagine  a  vain  thing?  ' 

J  rSALM  J.I.:    v.  i. 


POWER  PRESS  OF  JOHN  M.  COOPER  &  CO. 
1862. 


OUR  CAUSE  IN  HARMONY  WITH  THE  PURPOSES  OF  GOD  IN  CHRIST  JESUS. 


A  SERMON 

§  toiAmI  in  itefe!  §lnu%  $mmm% 

On  Thursday,  September  18th,  1862, 

BEING  THE  DAY   SET   FORTH  EY   THE 

PRESIDENT  OF  THE  CONFEDERATE  STATES, 

AS   A    DAY   OP 

PRAYER  AND  THANKSGIVING, 

FOR  OUR  MANIFOLD  VICTORIES,  AND  ESPECIALLY  FOR  THE  FIELDS  OF 

MANASSAS    AND    RICHMOND,  Ky. 

BY     THE 

Tit.  Rev.  STEPHEN   ELLIOTT,  D.  D., 

iSfctor  of  Crjrist  flfljureJj,  anto  ftisljop  of  tfjc  Siocrsc  of  Georgia. 


'Why  do  the  heathen  rage,  and  the  people  imagine  a  vain  thing?" 

Psalm  II.:  v.  i. 


J>avatttt8li: 


POWER  PRESS  OF  JOHN  M.  COOPER  &  CO. 
1862. 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 

in  2012  with  funding  from 

University  of  North  Carolina  at  Chapel  Hill 


http://archive.org/details/ourcauseinharmonOOelli 


SAVANNAH.  September  21st,  1862. 

Right  Reverend  and  Dear  Sir: 

We,  the  undersigned  Wardens  and  Vestrymen  of  Christ  Church,  respect- 
fully request  of  }-ou  for  publication,  a  copy  of  the  Sermon  preached  by  you 
on  Thanksgiving  day, — Thursday,  September  18th,  inst. 

In  order  that  fanaticism  and  infidelity  may  be  rebuked,  and  the  cause  of 
the  Confederacy  may  be  strengthened,  we  desire  that  the  views  presented  in 
that  sermon  may  be  disseminated  as  widely  as  possible. 

Very  Respectfully,  . 

W.  P.  HUNTER. 
WM.  H.  CUYLER, 
ROBT.  HABERSHAM, 
W.  THORNE  WILLIAMS, 
JOHN  WILLIAMSON, 
GEORGE  A.  GORDON. 
Rt.  Rev'd  Stephen  Elliott. 


SAVANNAH,  Sept.  22d,  1862. 

Messrs.  Wji.  P.  Hunter,  Wm.  H.  Cuyler,  Wardens,  and  Messrs.  Robt.  Hab- 
ersham, W.  Thorne  Williams,  John  Williamson  and  George  A.  Gordon, 
Vestrymen  of  Christ  Church,  Savannah. 

Gentlemen : — 

Vour's  of  yesterday  requesting  for  publication  a  copy  of  the  Ser- 
mon preached  on  Thanksgiving  day,  September  18th,  1862,  was  received  this 
morning. 

As  I  desire  to  see  our   cause    placed   upon    its   highest  ground,  I  readily 
consent  that   my   contribution  to  that  end  shall  be    submitted  to  the  public 
consideration.     Your    approval    of  it  confirms   me    in    the    soundness    of  my 
positions  and  renders  me  more  secure  of  their  justice  and  truth. 
I  am,  with  the  highest  consideration, 

Very  sincerely  your  Pastor  and  Bishop, 

STEPHEN  ELLIOTT. 


%$  tfte  ®Xmq\j  of  Uxt  §kmt  $i  <8towfli*. 


Whereas  the  President  of  the  Confederate  States  did,  on  the  4th  day  of 
September,  issue  his  proclamation  setting  apart  Thursday,  the  18th  day  of  Sep- 
tember inst.,  as  a  day  of  Prayer  and  Thanksgiving  to  Almighty  God,  for  the 
great  mercies  vouchsafed  to  our  people,  and  more  especially  for  the  triumph  of 
our  arms  at  Richmond  and  Manassas,  in  Virginia,  and  at  Richmond,  in  Ken- 
tucky, and  did  invite  the  people  of  the  Confederate  States  to  meet  on  that  day 
at  their  respective  places  of  public  worship,  and  to  unite  iu  rendering  thanks 
and  praise  to  God  for  these  great  mercies,  and  to  implore  him  to  conduct  our 
country  safely  through  the  perils  which  surround  us,  to  the  final  attainment  of 
the  blessings  of  peace  and  security. 

Kow,  therefore,  I,  Stephen  Elliott,  Bishop  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church 
of  the  Diocese  of  Georgia,  do  recommend  to  the  Clergj''  of  said  Diocese,  to  open 
their  several  places  of  worship  on  Thursday,  the  said  18th  day  of  September, 
and  to  unite  with  their  congregations  in  thanksgiving  and  praise  to  Almighty 
God  for  all  His  mercies,  and  especially  for  our  signal  and  manifold  victories  over 
the  invaders  of  our  country,  according  to  the  following  form  : 

Morning  Prayer  as  usual  to  the  "  Venite  Exultemus."  Iustead  of  the  "  Yenite," 
let  the  Psalm  of  Praise  and  Thanksgiving  after  victory,  to  be  found  in  the 
"Forms  of  Prayer  to  be  used  at  Sea,"  and  beginning  "If  the  Lord  had  not  been 
on  our  side,  now  may  we  say,"  be  said  or  sung. 

For  the  Psalter— Psalms  136,  144,  14G. 

Gloria  in  Excelsis. 

First  Lesson — 2  Chronicles:  Ch.  20  to  Y.  31. 
The  Te  Deum. 

Second  Lesson — 1  Timothy:  Ch.  G  to  Y.  17. 

Before  the  General  Thanksgiving  introduce  the  Collect  for  Yictory,  to  be 
found  in  the  "  Forms  of  Prayer  to  be  used  at  Sea,"  beginning  "  0,  Almighty 
God,  the  Sovereign  Commander  of  all  the  world,"  changing  "this  happy  vic- 
tory" into  "  these  happy  victories,"  and  "  this  great  mercy"  into  <:  these  great 
mercies,"  wherever  the  words  may  occur. 

Introduce,  likewise,  the  "  Collect  for  Peace  and  Deliverance  from  our  Ene- 
mies," to  be  found  among  the  occasional  thanksgivings. 

It  not  being  a  Litany  day,  the  Litany  will  not  be  said.  The  Prayer  set  forth 
by  the  Bishop  to  be  used  during  the  continuance  of  the  war,  will  also  be  omitted 
upon  this  occasion. 


,f  nwflu. 


Proverbs,  Ch.  XXIV,  w.  17-18.     "  Rejoice  not  token  thine 

enemy  fallelh,  and  let  not  thine  heart  he  glad  ivhen  he  slumbleth :" 

Lest  the  Lord  see  it,  and  it  displease  him  and  he  turn  aivay  his 

wrath  from  Mm." 

> 

On  the  16th  day  of  last  May,  in  the  moment  of  our  bitter- 
est adversity,  when  our  honored  Chief  Magistrate  had  called 
the  people  of  these  Confederate  States  to  supplication  and 
prayer,  at  the  close  of  the  sermon  preached  upon  that  occa- 
sion, I  was  bold  to  utter  the  following  sentiments  : 

"  In  my  opinion  the  real  troubles  of  our  enemies  are  just 
about  to  begin.  They  find  themselves  now,  with  the  heats 
and  sickness  of  summer  coming  upon  them,  with  the  water 
courses  preparing  to  dry  up,  with  their  armies  in  a  hostile 
country  far  from  their  base  of  operation,  in  the  face  of  deter- 
mined and  exasperated  enemies,  led  by  some  of  the  best  gen- 
erals of  the  continent,  with  the  wail  of  Europe  beginning  to 
swell  upon  the  breeze,  and  their  work  not  half  done.  Truly 
their  position  is  one  not  to  be  envied ;  and  in  the  midst  of 
their  exultation  and  feasting  the  handwriting  is  upon  the  wall 
of  their  palace.  For  a  few  weeks  more  their  successes  may 
seem  to  continue,  but  the  summer's  sun  shall  not  have  passed 
away,  ere  we  shall  find  ourselves  freed  from  their  power,  and 
rejoicing  in  present  deliverance.  And  what  is  more,  we  shall 
be  forced  to  confess  that  the  Lord  hath  done  it  in  the  face  of 
all  the  nations." 

A  few  weeks  after  these  utterances  were  made,  commenced 
that  series  of  victories  which  culminated  on  the  80th  day  of 
August,  one  day  before  the  summer's  sun  had  finished  its 
course,  in  the  battles  of  Manassas  and  Richmond,  freeing  us 


6  A  SERMON. 

from  the  power  of  our  enemies,  and  causing  us  to  be  gathered 
together  to-day,  through  all  the  wide  extent  of  our  Confeder- 
acy, that  we  may  offer  the  sacrifice  of  thanksgiving  and  of 
praise  to  Almighty  God  for  our  present  deliverance. 

I  reproduce  these  words  to-day,  not  to  claim  for  myself  any 
spirit  of  prophecy,  but  because  the  conclusions  then  enunci- 
ated were  deduced,  through  a  train  of  reasoning,  from  pre- 
mises distinctly  laid  down  in  the  word  of  God,  and  acted  upon 
again  and  again  in  his  dealings  with  the  nations,  and  also  be- 
cause I  desire  to  gain  credit  with  you  for  opinions  which  I 
shall  utter  to-day,  and  which  may  be  of  vast  importance  to 
you  in  the  future.  When  a  man's  judgment  has  been  more 
than  once  strikingly  confirmed,  his  views  deserve  attention 
and  ought  to  receive  it.  And  knowing  how  loth  man  is  to 
admit  God's  hand  in  any  of  the  affairs  of  the  world — how  set 
he  is  to  rest  altogether  in  secondary  causes  and  secondary 
agencies — how  he  will  move,  if  possible,  in  the  lower  atmos- 
phere of  sense  and  of  worldliness,  I  would  fortify  myself,  in 
this  way,  in  behalf  of  ulterior  conclusions,  which  I  derive  from 
the  same  infallible  book  of  wisdom  and  of  knowledge,  the 
Holy  Scriptures.  To  some  they  will  prove  unpalatable,  be- 
cause they  will  not  smack  of  peace — to  others  they  will  seem 
visionary,  because  they  will  deal  with  spiritual  influences 
which  the  world  admits  not  into  its  calculations — by  many 
they  will  be  deemed  humiliating,  because  they  will  rest  our 
success  and  our  security  upon  causes  distinct  from  our  own 
valor  or  wisdom  or  merit,  but  they  appear  to  me  to  be  in 
entire  accordance  with  God's  purposes,  and  to  furnish  adequate 
reasons  for  a  condition  of  things  which  seems  to  the  world  in- 
consistent with  the  christian  principles  that  ought  to  control 
this  country  and  this  people.  My  purpose  is  to  justify  the 
ways  of  God  to  man,  even  when  those  ways  have  been  forced, 
by  the  blindness  and  perverseness  of  human  nature,  to  pass 
through  seas  of  blood  and  over  the  ruined  and  desolated 
hearthstones  of  multitudes. 

If  the  affairs  of  the  world  are  regulated  at  all  by  God,  we 
cannot  suppose  that  the  destiny  of  a  great  Christian  nation, 


m 


A   SERMON.  ( 

such  as  these  United  States  were,  would  be  disregarded  by 
him  or  unaffected  by  his  control.  It  was  rapidly  becoming, 
at  the  moment  when  this  civil  convulsion  began,  a  mighty 
power  in  the  earth,  a  controlling  element  in  the  progress  of 
the  world.  A  century  more  would  have  made  it  not  only 
the  mightiest  nation  of  modern  times,  but  would  have  exalted 
it  to  an  equality  with  the  greatest  Empires  which  have  ever 
swayed  the  earth.  "Vast  then  must  have  been  the  interest 
which  was  permitted  to  shatter  it  while  yet  ascending  to  its 
greatness  ;  heinous  the  sin  which  could  deserve  such  a  punish- 
ment as  is  now  scourging  it  from  its  one  ocean  to  the  other. 
We  can  find  that  interest  only  in  the  institution  of  slavery 
which  was  the  immediate  cause  of  this  revolution.  We  can 
find  the  sin  only  in  that  presumptuous  interference  with  the 
will  and  ways  of  God,  which,  beginning  in  an  overmuch 
righteousness,  coalesced  rapidly  with  infidelity,  and  ended  in 
a  bold  defiance  of  the  word  of  God,  and  of  the  principles  of 
his  moral  government. 

As  the  world  draws  towards  its  end,  the  hand  of  God  be- 
comes more  visible  in  its  affairs.  Even  in  human  arrange- 
ments where  a  scheme  or  a  policy  is  complicated,  ordinary 
men  can  understand  but  little  of  them  in  their  beginning  or 
during  much  of  their  progress.  But  when  they  draw  near  to 
their  consummation,  the  purpose  becomes  more  evident,  the 
converging  movements  more  perceptible,  the  final  result  more 
clear  and  determined.  The  last  touches  are  those  which  har- 
monize the  discordant  features  of  the  plan  and  pronounce  it 
the  work  of  a  great  and  persistent  mind.  It  can  then  be  seen 
what  was  the  meaning  of  each  arrangement — what  the  intent 
of  every  act,  however  unintelligible  when  first  they  flashed 
upon  the  perception.  And  so  with  the  mighty  and  sublime 
work  of  God  upon  earth.  We  cannot  understand  it  as  it  pro- 
gresses, because  our  finite  minds  cannot  comprehend  the  policy 
of  an  infinite  will.  The  Bible  reveals  to  us  what  it  is,  tells 
us  through  what  agencies  it  is  to  be  produced,  introduces  us 
to  the  beings  who  are  working  it  out,  gives  us  a  chart  of  the 
future  as  well  as  a  history  of  the  past,  but  nevertheless  our 


8  A  SERMON. 

limited  vision  is  embarrassed  amid  the  complicate  movements 
of  the  world,  and  the  numberless  causes  which  combine  to 
produce  a  single  effect.  We  perceive  that  it  is  going  on ;  at 
long  intervals  of  time  we  can  trace  backward  its  persistent 
though  interrupted  course,  but  we  cannot  conceive  what  the 
future  steps  are  to  be,  nor  how  such  confusion  as  often  reigns 
upon  earth  can  be  tending  to  the  production  of  an  ultimate 
harmony.  But  as  the  period  approaches  when  God's  economy 
of  grace  is  to  be  consummated,  then  are  we  permitted  to  gather 
up  all  the  interlacing  threads  and  to  distinguish  the  glorious 
pattern  which  the  Almighty  Artist  has  been  working  out 
through  the  instruments  which  he  is  wielding,  and  has  been 
wielding  for  ages.  That  work  is  the  regeneration  of  a  fallen 
world,  and  that  regeneration  is  to  be  wrought  out  through  the 
preaching  of  the  gospel  to  every  creature,  through  hia  opening- 
all  the  Continents  of  the  earth  to  the  influence  of  the  religion 
of  Jesus  Christ.  When  this  shall  have  been  accomplished, 
when  the  gospel  shall  have  been  preached  as  a  witness  to  all 
the  world,  then  will  the  end  come,  and  Christ  shall  be  set 
upon  his  Holy  Hill  of  Zion. 

If  we  examine  the  religious  condition  of  the  world,  keep- 
ing this  purpose  in  our  view,  we  will  perceive  that  paramount 
Christian  influences  are  steadily  at  work  every  where  else  ex- 
cept in  Africa.  Europe  is  Christian  in  its  entire  length  and 
breadth,  that  is,  has  had  the  gospel  preached  as  a  witness  to 
all  her  various  kingdoms  and  empires.  America  has  been  re- 
peopled  altogether  from  Christian  nations,  and  the  cross  is 
adored  over  all  her  wide  area,  save  where  the  rapidly  expir- 
ing Indian  tribes  yet  break  its  continuity.  England,  France, 
and  Russia  are  fast  casting  over  Asia  the  spell  of  their  vast 
political  power,  and  the  old  worship  of  Brahma  and  the  moral 
teachings  of  Confucius  and  the  imposture  of  Mohammed  are 
tottering  to  their  fall.  Australia  is  peopling  under  the  auspices 
of  Great  Britain,  and  wherever  she  goes,  her  Church  goes 
with  her.  Africa  alone  is  uninfluenced  by  Christianity,  and 
whence  is  that  influence  to  proceed  ?  "Pis  true,  that  here  and 
there,    along  her  outward  limits,    Christian    Churches  have 


A   SERMOX.  9 

planted  their  feeble  settlements,  and  Christian  missionaries 
have  devoted  themselves  in  faith  to  the  service  of  the  Lord. 
But  they  have  gone,  for  the  most  part,  only  to  die,  and 
have  made  no  impression  upon  that  vast  interior  which 
swarms  with  life  and  knows  no  religion  save  that  of  Na- 
ture, or  the  fraudulent  devices  of  man.  How,  then,  is 
that  dark  spot  upon  the  world's  surface  to  be  enlightened? 
Who  is  to  pierce  those  pestilential  regions  and  preach  the 
everlasting  Gospel,  even  though  it  be  only  for  a  witness? 
And  echo  answers  who?  for  all  have  attempted  it,  and 
all  alike  have  failed.  The  self-den  ving  missionaries  of  Rome 
— men  who  have  gained  a  foothold  in  all  other  regions — have 
tried  it.  but  have  been  swept  away  before  the  flood  of  barbar- 
ism and  incivility.  The  highly  educated  missionaries  of  the 
English,  Church  have  tried  it,  and  neither  their  knowledge, 
nor  their  devotion,  nor  the  prestige  of  English  power,  have 
availed  any  thing  against  climate  and  disease.  The  indomi- 
table missionaries  of  the  Moravian  Church  have  tried  it  until 
Sierra  Leone  has  been  a  very  Golgotha  to  them.  The  enter- 
prising missionaries  of  the  American  Churches  have  tried  it, 
and  while  their  previous  knowledge  of  the  African  in  this 
country  had,  in  a  measure,  prepared  them  for  their  work,  they 
too  have  failed,  because  the  Caucasian  blood  has  not  been  able 
to  bear  the  enervating  heats  and  destructive  fevers  of  the  torrid 
zone.  Yv  nence,  then,  is  their  regeneration  to  come,  for  come 
it  must,  if  the  Bible  be  the  word  of  God,  ere  the  present 
economy  of  things  shall  terminate  ?  We  are  driven  to  look 
for  it  from  some*  agency  which  shall  be  able,  through  national 
affinities,  through  a  like  physiological  structure,  through  a 
oneness  of  blood  and  of  race,  to  bear  the  burden  of  this  work, 
and  ultimately,  in  God's  own  time,  to  plant  the  gospel  in  their 
Father-land,  after  they  themselves  shall  have  been  prepared, 
through  a  proper  discipline,  for  the  .performance  of  this  duty. 
And  I  find  this  agency  in  the  African  slaves  now  dwelling 
upon  this  Continent  and  educating,  amorig  ourselves.  I  see 
here  the  instruments  whom  God  .  is  preparing,  in  his  own  in- 
scrutable way,  to  co-operate  with  the  other  instruments  who 

B 


10  A  SERMON". 

are  at  work  upon  the  other  Continents  to  bring  in  the  king- 
dom of  our  Lord  and  Saviour  Jesus  Christ,  and  it  is  this  con- 
viction, and  not  any  merit  in  ourselves,  which  makes  me 
confident  that  we  shall  be  safely  preserved  through  this  con- 
flict. Most  of  you  are  looking  to  other  causes  for  our  success 
and  our  preservation,  to  the  valor  of  our  troops,  to  the  skill 
of  our  generals,  to  the  extent  of  our  territorial  surface,  to 
foreign  influence,  to  the  power  of  commerce  and  of  trade.  I 
am  looking  to  the  poor  despised  slave  as  the  source  of  our 
security,  because  I  firmly  believe  that  God  will  not  permit  his 
purposes  to  be  overthrown  or  his  arrangements  to  be  inter- 
fered with.  He  has  caused  the  African  race  to  be  planted  here 
under  our  political  protection  and  under  our  christian  nurture, 
for  his  own  ultimate  designs,  and  he  will  keep  it  here  under 
that  culture  until  the  fulness  of  his  own  times,  and  any  people 
which  strives  against  this  divine  arrangement  will  find  that  it 
is  running  against  the  thick  bosses  of  Jehovah's  buckler. 
Those  who  have  looked  at  slavery  superficially,  have  permit- 
ted themselves  to  be  moved  away  from  scriptural  decrees  by 
such  trivial  things  as  are  the  necessary  accompaniments  of  all 
bondage,  and  have  rashly  yielded  to  their  sensibilities  the 
conclusions  which  ought  to  be  drawn  exclusively  from  the 
word  of  God.  They  have  passionately  decided  that  God  could 
have  nothing  to  do  with  an  institution  bearing  upon  its  face 
the  evils  and  miseries  which  attend  the  enslavement  of  any 
people.  They  seem  strangely  to  forget  that  he  kept  his  own 
chosen  people — the  descendants  after  the  flesh  of  that  Abra- 
ham whom  he  called  his  friend — the  children  of  that  Jacob 
whom  he  surnamecl  a  Prince  with  God — in  bondage  to  Egypt 
for  four  hundred  years,  until  they  were  disciplined  to  go  forth 
and  become  a  nation  among  the  nations.  What  cared  He,  in 
his  stern,  unbending  preparation  of  a  people  educating  for 
divine  ends  and  for  immortal  purposes,  for  such  trivial  things 
as  slavery,  as  toil,  as  the  sufferings  of  a  subject  race?  There 
were  they  kept  under  the  yoke  until  he  saw  fit  to  break  it  and 
to  carry  them,  a  humbled  and  prepared  people,  into  the  land 
which  had  been  marked  out  for  them  as  the  scene  of  their 


A  SERMON.  11 

future  glory — a  glory  of  spiritual  triumphs.  Will  man  learn 
nothing  from  the  past?  Shall  God  unveil  his  purposes  and 
his  dealings  to  his  sight,  and  will  he  forever  turn  away  be- 
sotted and  without  perception  ?  With  this  treatment  by  God 
of  his  own  chosen  people  full  in  their  view,  with  a  clear  per- 
ception of  the  necessity  of  a  people,  of  African  lineage,  to  be 
disciplined  and  educated  for  the  work  of  the  Lord,  will  Chris- 
tian nations  be  yet  so  blinded  by  their  passions,  and  so  de- 
ceived by  their  sensibilities,  as  to  combine  to  overturn  a  divine 
missionary  scheme,  and  blot  it  out  from  the  face  of  the  earth  ? 
But  it  will  be  all  in  vain,  and  the  Church  of  the  future  will 
see  and  confess  that  as  Egypt  was  the  land  of  refuge  and  the 
school  of  nurture  for  the  race  of  Israel,  so  were  these  South- 
ern States  first  the  home  and  then  the  nursing  mother  of  those 
who  were  to  go  forth  and  regenerate  the  dark  recesses  of  a 
benighted  Continent. 

The  great  revolution  through  which  we  are  passing  cer- 
tainly turns  upon  this  point  of  slavery,  and  our  future  destiny 
is  bound  up  with  it.  As  we  deal  with  it,  so  shall  we  prosper,  or 
so  shall  we  suffer.  The  responsibility  is  upon  us,  and  if  we 
rise  up,  in  a  true  Christian  temper,  to  the  sublime  work  which 
God  has  committed  to  us  of  educating  a  subject  nation  for  his 
divine  purposes,  we  shall  be  blessed  of  him  as  Joseph  was,  and 
he  will  say  to  us,  "Blessed  of  the  Lord  be  thy  land,  for  the 
precious  things  of  Heaven,  for  the  clew,  and  for  the  deep  that 
coucheth  beneath,  and  for  the  precious  fruits  brought  forth  by 
the  sun,  and  for  the  precious  things  put  forth  by  the  moon, 
and  for  the  chief  things  of  the  ancient  mountains,  and  for  the 
precious  things  of  the  lasting  hills,  and  for  the  precious  things 
of  the  earth  and  fulness  thereof,  and  for  the  good  will  of  him 
that  dwelt  in  the  bush.''  But  if  contrariwise,  we  shall  misun- 
derstand our  relations  and  shall  assume  the  dominion  of  mas- 
ters without  remembering  the  duties  thereof,  God  will  "make 
them  pricks  in  our  eyes  and  thorns  in  our  sides,  and  shall  vex 
us  in  the  land  wherein  we  dwell." 

It  is  very  curious  and  very  striking,  in  this  connexion,  to 
trace  out  the  history  of  slavery  in  this  country,  and  to  observe 


12  A  SERMON. 

God's  providential  care  over  it  ever  since  its  introduction. 
Strange  to  sa3T,  African  slavery,  upon  this  Continent,  had  its 
origin  in  an  act  of  mercy.  The  negro  was  first  brought  across 
the  ocean  to  save  the  Indian  from  a  toil  which  was  destroying 
him,  but  while  the  Indian  has  perished,  the  substitute  who  was 
brought  to,  die  in  his  place,  has  lived,  prospered  and  multi- 
plied. When  the  slave  trade  had  become  so  hateful  to  all 
civilized  nations,  because  of  the  horrors  which  accompanied 
it,  that  with  one  consent  it  was  abolished  and  put  under  the 
ban  of  the  world,  that  which  was  supposed  to  have  dealt  a  fatal 
blow  to  slavery  proved  its  salvation  and  rapid  increase.  The 
inability  any  longer  to  procure  slaves  through  importation, 
forced  upon  masters  in  these  States  a  greater  attention  to  the 
comforts  and  morals  of  their  slaves.  The  family  relation  was 
fostered,  the  marriage  tie  grew  in  importance,  and  the  eight 
hundred  thousand  slaves  who  inhabited  these  States  at  the 
closing  of  our  ports  in  1808,  have,  in  the  short  space  of  fifty 
years,  grown  into  four  millions !  When  slavery  was  once 
again  endangered  by  the  very  scanty  profits  which  were 
yielded  to  the  planters  by  their  old  staples  of  indigo  and  rice, 
articles  of  only  partial  consumption,  God  permitted  a  new  staple 
to  be  introduced- — men  called  it  an  happy  accident — the  staple 
of  cotton,  which  seems  to  have  no  limit  to  its  consumption,  and 
which  cannot  be  increased  too  fast  for  the  wants  of  the  world. 
When  the  border  States,  which  could  not  profitably  grow  this 
staple,  were  calculating  the  value  of  the  slave  institution  for 
themselves,  and  w.ere  actually  debating,  in  conventions,  its 
speedy  extinction,  a  sudden  and  unexpected  value  was  given 
to  their  old  staples  of  wheat  and  tobacco — men  called  it  again 
an  happy  accident— and  the  slave  rose  once  again  into  import- 
ance, and  God  used  self-interest  to  check  the  disposition  towards 
emancipation.  When  the  false  philanthropy  of  Europe  was 
making  many  converts  to  its  views,  even  in  the  Southern  States, 
and  earnest  minds  were  deeply  agitated  upon  the  question  of 
the  sinfulness  of  slavery,  God  permitted  a  Christian  nation  to 
try  the  experiment  of  emancipation  upon  a  small  scale — to  try 
it  in  the  face  of  the  world — and  the  wretched  and  ruinous 


A  SERMON.  13 

result  of  idleness,  of  dissipation,  of  anarchy  which  followed  in 
the  most  fertile  and  beautiful  Islands  of  the  globe,  satisfied  our. 
people  that  it  was  the  veriest  mistake  ever  made  b}~  a  wise 
nation.  When,  in  these  still  more  recent  times,  the  institu- 
tion was  denounced  as  unscriptural,  and  contrary  to  the  spirit 
of  Christianity,  and  the  finger  of  scorn  was  pointed  at  us  and 
we  were  unchurched  for  our  adherence  to  it,  and  were  called 
to  bear  the  shock  of  opinion  striking  upon  us  from  the  chris- 
tian world,  such  an  host  of  writers  from  every  department  of 
literature  sprang  into  the  arena — statesmen,  economists,  phi- 
losophers, divines,  as  if  raised  up  by  God — and  refuted  those 
calumnies  so  overwhelmingly,  that  the  public  mind  became 
settled  to  an  unusual  degree,  and  we  were  prejDared  to  contend 
for  it  as  for  one  of  our  most  sacred  domestic  relations.  God 
protected  it  at  every  point,  made  all  assaults  upon  it  to  turn 
to  its  more  permanent  establishment,  caused  the  laws  of  nature 
to  work  in  its  behalf,  furnished  new  products  to  ensure  its 
continuance  and,  at  the  same  time,  ameliorate  its  circumstan- 
ces, made  its  bitterest  antagonists  to  furnish  arguments  against 
its  destruction,  and  raised  up  advocates  who  placed  it,  through 
reasoning  drawn  directly  from  the  Bible,  upon  an  impregnable 
basis  of  truth  and  necessity,  connecting  it,  as  we  have  shewn 
you,  with  sublime  spiritual  purposes  in  the  future.  And, 
finally,  when  the  deeply-laid  conspiracy  of  Black  Republican- 
ism threatened  to  undermine  this  divinely-guarded  institution, 
God  produced  for  its  defence  within  the  more  Southern  States 
an  unanimity  of  sentiment,  and  a  devoted  spirit  of  self-sacrifice 
almost  unexampled  in  the  world  and  has  so  directed  affairs  as 
to  discipline  into  a  like  sympathy  those  border  States  which 
were  not  at  first  prepared  to  risk  a  revolution  in  its  defence. 
We  have  been  gathered  together  to-day  by  a  proclamation 
of  our  President  to  return  thanks  to  Almighty  God  for  a 
series  of  brilliant  victories  won  by  our  gallant  soldiers  over 
the  invaders  of  our  soil.  Most  fervently  do  we  thank  Him  for 
his  presence  with  us  upon  those  fields  of  terrible  conflict,  for 
the  skill  of  our  commanding  generals,  for  the  heroism  of  our 
officers  of  every  grade,  for  the  valour  and  self-sacrifice  of  our 


14  A  SERMON. 

soldiers,  for  the  glorious  results  which  have  followed  upon  the 
success  of  our  arms.  Most  devoutly  do  we  praise  and  bless 
His  holy  name,  this  day,  for  the  deliverance  of  our  country 
from  the  polluting  tread  of  the  enemy  and  for  the  punish- 
ment which  he  has  seen  fit  to  inflict  upon  those  who  vainly 
boasted  that  they  would  devour  us.  We  give  all  the  glory  to 
Him,  while  we  cannot  forget  the  living  heroes  whose  inspired 
courage  led  them  triumphant  over  fields  of  desperate  carnage, 
nor  the  martyred  dead  who  have  poured  out  the  gushing  tide 
of  their  young  and  noble  life-blood  for  the  sacred  cause  which 
carried  them  to  the  battle  field.  But  battles,  at  last,  even 
with  all  the  dazzling  halo  which  surrounds  them,  are  but 
fields  of  slaughter,  unless  made  illustrious  by  the  principles 
which  they  involved  or  by  the  spirit  which  animated  and 
ruled  over  them.  The  meeting  of  barbaric  hordes  upon  fields 
of  blood,  of  which  history  is  full,  where  men  fought  with  the 
instinct  and  ferocity  of  beasts,  simply  for  hatred's  sake  or  the 
love  of  war,  is  disgusting  to  the  noble  mind,  and  carries  with 
it  no  idea  save  that  of  brutality.  We  could  not  thank  God 
for  victories  such  as  those,  and  therefore,  in  keeping  this  Holy 
Festival  our  thankfulness  must  rest  more  upon  the  cause  for 
which  he  has  called  us  to  arms,  upon  the  spirit  which  has  ac- 
companied it,  and  upon  the  guardianship  which  he  has  estab- 
lished over  us,  than  upon  the  mere  triumphs  of  the  battle 
field. 

We  do  not  place  our  cause  upon  its  highest  level  until  we 
grasp  the  idea  that  God  has  made  us  the  guardians  and  cham- 
pions of  a  people  whom  he  is  preparing  for  his  own  purposes 
and  against  whom  the  whole  world  is  banded.  The  most 
solemn  relation  upon  earth  is  that  between  parent  and  child, 
because  in  it  immortal  souls  are  committed  to  the  training  of 
man  not  only  for  time  but  for  eternity.  There  is  no  measure 
to  its  sublimity,  for  it  stretches  upwards  to  the  throne  of  God 
and  links  us  with  immortality.  We  tremble  when  we  medi- 
tate upon  it  and  cry  for  divine  help  when  we  weigh  its  responsi- 
bilities. What  shall  we  think,  then,  of  the  relation  which 
subsists  between  a  dominant  race  professing  to  believe  in  God 


A  SERMON.  15 

and  to  acknowledge  Christ  and  a  subject  race,  brought  from 
their  distant  homes  and  placed  under  its  charge  for  culture,  for 
elevation  and  for  salvation,  and  while  so  placed  contributing 
by  its  labor  to  the  welfare  and  comfort  of  the  world.  What 
a  trust  from  God !  What  reliance  has  he  placed  upon  Qur 
faithfulness  and  our  integrity !  What  a  sure  confidence  does 
it  give  us  in  his  protection  and  favor !  His  divine  arrangements 
are  placed  in  our  keeping.  Will  he  not  preserve  them  ?  His 
divine  purposes  seem  to  be  intermingled  with  our  success. 
Will  he  not  be  careful  to  give  us  that  success  and  just  in  the 
way  that  he  shall  see  to  be  best  for  us  ?  His  purposes  are  yea 
and  amen  in  Christ  Jesus  and  cannot  be  overturned  by  man. 
It  places  our  warfare  above  any  estimate  which  unspiritual 
minds  can  make  of  it.  While  many  other  motives  are  urging 
us  to  the  battle-field  and  we  rush  forward  to  defend  our  liber- 
ties, our  homes,  our  altars,  God  is  super-adding  this  other 
motive — 'the  secret  of  his  own  will — is  making  it  to  produce 
within  us,  unconsciously  perhaps  to  ourselves,  a  power  which 
is  irresistible.  Our  conscience  in  this  war  is  thus  made  right 
towards  God  and  towards  man ;  our  heart  is  filled  with  his  fear 
and  his  love ;  our  arm  is  nerved  with  almost  super-human 
strength,  and  we  have  reason  to  thank  him,  not  only  for  what 
he  has  done  for  us,  but  for  what  he  has  restrained  us  from 
doing  for  ourselves  and  others  from  doing  for  us.  This  noble 
cause  has  made  him  our  guide  and  our  overruling  governor, 
and  we  are  moving  forward,  as  I  firmly  believe,  as  truly  under 
his  direction,  as  did  the  people  of  Israel  when  he  led  them 
with  a  pillar  of  cloud  by  clay  and  of  fire  by  night. 

Next  to  the  cause  in  which  we  are  engaged,  we  have  to 
thank  God  for  the  spirit  of  our  people  and  of  our  armies. 
Such  a  contest  as  this  which  we  are  waging  could  never  have 
been  carried  on  successfully  without  such  an  entire  devotion 
as  pervades  the  States  of  this  confederacy.  Although  shut  in 
from  the  rest  of  the  world,  and  deprived  of  all  our  accustomed 
luxuries  and  many,  even,  of  our  comforts ;  although  cut  off 
from  intercourse  with  those  we  love  in  foreign  lands,  many  of 
whom  are  near  and  dear  to  us ;  although  forbidden  even  to 


16  A   SERMON. 

know  what  is  going  on  in  science  or  literature  or  art,  although 
stripped  of  all  legitimate  commerce  and  trade;  although,  in 
some  of  the  professions,  debarred  from  all  business  and  all 
means  of  profit ;  although  left  with  the  ruling  product  of  the 
county  incapable  of  sale,  save  when  a  speculative  demand 
within  our  own  borders  may  arise  for  it,  there  is  yet  heard  no 
murmur,  no  complaint,  no  disaffection,  but  all  are  willing  to 
bear  and  to  suffer  for  the  cause's  sake.  God  has  given  us 
a  willing  mind  and  we  cheer  each  other  on  in  faith  and 
trustfulness.  And  not  only  to  the  sterner  sex  has  God  given 
this  enduring  temper,  but  the  attitude  of  woman  is  sublime. 
Bearing  all  the  sacrifices  of  which  I  have  just  spoken,  she 
is  moreover  called  upon  to  suffer  in  her  affections,  to  be 
wounded  and  smitten  where  she  feels  deepest  and  most  en- 
duringly.  Man  goes  to  the  battle-field  but  woman  sends  him 
there,  even  though  her  heart  strings  tremble  while  she  gives 
the  farewell  kiss  and  the  farewell  blessing.  Man  is  sup- 
ported by  the  necessity  of  movement,  by  the  excitement  of 
action,  by  the  hope  of  honor,  by  the  glory  of  conquest.  Wo- 
man remains  at  home  to  suffer,  to  bear  the  cruel  torture  of 
suspense,  to  tremble  when  the  battle  has  been  fought  and  the 
news  of  the  slaughter  is  flashing  over  the  electric  wire,  to 
know  that  defeat  will  cover  her  with  dishonor  and  her  little 
ones  with  ruin,  to  learn  that  the  husband  she  doted  upon,  the 
son  whom  she  cherished  in  her  bosom  and  upon  whom  she 
never  let  the  wind  blow  too  rudely,  the  brother  with  whom 
she  sported  through  all  her  happy  days  of  childhood,  the  lover 
to  whom  her  early  vows  were  plighted,  has  died  upon  some 
distant  battle-field  and  lies  there  a  mangled  corpse,  unknown 
and  uncared  for,  never  to  be  seen  again  even  in  death.  Oh! 
those  fearful  lists  of  the  wounded  and  the  dead !  How 
carelessly  we  pass  them  over,  unless  our  own  loved  ones 
happen  to  be  linked  with  them  in  military  association,  and 
yet  each  name  in  that  roll  of  slaughter  carries  a  fatal  pang- 
to  some  woman's  heart — some  noble,  devoted  woman's  heart. 
But  she  bears  it  all  and  bows  submissive  to  the  stroke. 
"  He   died  for  the   cause.     He  perished  for  his   country.     I 


A   SERMON.  17 

would  not  have  it  otherwise,  but  I  should. like  to  have  given 
the  dying  boy  my  blessing,  the  expiring  husband  my  last  kiss 
of  affection,  the  bleeding  lover  the  comfort  of  knowing  that  I 
kneeled  beside  him.'"  This  is  the  daily  language  of  woman 
throughout  this  Confederacy,  and  whence  could  such  a  spirit 
come  but  from  God,  and  what  is  worthy  to  produce  it  but 
some  cause  which  lies  beyond  any  mere  human  estimate. 
And  when  we  turn  to  our  armies,  truly  these  victories  are  the 
victories  of  the  privates.  God  forbid  that  I  should  take  one 
atom  of  honor  or  of  praise  from  those  who  led  our  hosts  upon 
those  days  of  glory — from  the  accomplished  and  skilful  Lee 
— the  admirable  Crichton  of  our  armies — from  the  God-fearing 
and  indomitable  Jackson,  upon  whose  prayer-bedewed  banner 
victory  seems  to  wait — from  the  intrepid  Stuart,  whose  cavalry 
charges  imitate  those  of  Murat,  from  that  great  host  of  gen- 
erals who  swarm  around  our  country's  flag  as  Napoleon's 
Marshals  did  around  the  Imperial  Eagle,  but  nevertheless  our 
victories  are  the  victories  of  the  privates.  It  is  the  enthusi- 
astic dash  of  their  onsets,  the  fearless  bravery  with  which 
they  rush  even  to  the  cannon's  mouth,  the  utter  recklessness 
of  life,  if  so  be  that  its  sacrifice  may  only  lead  to  victory,  the 
heartfelt  impression  that  the  cause  is  the  cause  of  every  man, 
and  that  success  is  a  necessity.  What  intense  honor  do  I  feel 
for  the  private  soldier !  The  officers  may  have  motives  other 
than  the  cause,  the  private  soldier  can  have  none.  He  knows 
that  his  valor  must  pass  unnoticed,  save  in  the  narrow  circle 
of  his  company  ;  that  his  sacrifice  can  bring  no  honor  to  his 
name,  no  reputation  to  his  family  ;  that  if  he  survives  he  lives 
only  to  enter  upon  new  dangers  with  the  same  hopelessness  of 
distinction  ;  that  if  he  dies,  he  will  receive  nothing  but  an  un- 
marked grave,  and  yet  is  he  proud  to  do  his  duty  and  to 
maintain  his  part  in  the  destructive  conflict.  His  comrades 
fall  around  him  thick  and  fast,  but  with  a  sigh  and  tear  he 
closes  his  ranks  and  presses  on  to  a  like  destiny.  Truly  the 
first  monument  which  our  Confederacy  rears,  when  our  inde- 
pendence shall  have  been  won,  should  be  a  lofty  shaft,  pure 


18  A  SERMON. 

and  spotless,  bearing  this  inscription:    "To  the  unknown 

AND   UNRECORDED   DEAD." 

But  we  have  reason  to  thank  God  to-day,  not  only  for  what 
he  has  given  us  the  heart  to  do,  but  for  what  he  has  restrained 
us  from  doing,  and  restrained  others  from  doing  in  our  behalf. 
If  the  premises  upon  which  I  have  rested  all  my  reasoning 
be  correct,  then  is  the  unity  of  the  slave  institution,  in  this 
country,  a  matter  of  vast  importance.  And  I  think  I  can 
perceive  how  God  has  been  working  for  us  to  produce  that 
result  by  restraining  us  from  any  premature  invasion  of  the 
border  States,  and  in  the  meantime  disciplining  them  for  his 
ultimate  purpose. 

Those  States  were  not  prepared,  a  year  ago,  to  receive  an 
invading  or  protecting  army,  whichever  you  may  please  to 
call  it.  They  had  been,  for  years,  under  influences  adverse 
to  our  institution  of  slavery,  and  at  one  period  appeared  to 
be  fast  approaching  to  Free-soilism,  with  its  resulting  dema- 
gogueism  and  corruption.  An  eloquent  statesman,  now  gone 
to  his  rest,  had  come  into  public  life  at  a  period  when  the 
mad  fervour  of  the  French  revolution  had  inclined  men  to 
think  that  liberty,  as  they  termed  licentiousness  and  anarchy, 
was  the  greatest  blessing  bestowed  by  God  upon  man,  had  him- 
self strongly  imbibed  that  feeling  and  did  much  to  impress  it 
especially  upon  Kentucky  and  Maryland.  From  him,  too,  for 
be  was  their  political  idol,  those  States  had  conceived  a  pro- 
found veneration  for  the  Union,  and  had  not  been  borne  along 
by  that  tide  of  discontent  which  was  every  day  swelling 
through  the  more  Southern  slave  States,  and  making  them 
realize  that  the  Union  was  a  curse  and  not  a  blessing,  a  means 
used  for  destruction  and  not  for  security.  Those  States  rather 
favored  the  earlier  steps  of  Federal  encroachment.  The  tariff 
of  duties  for  protection,  the  system  of  internal  improvement 
by  the  National  Government,  the  idea  of  a  strong  central 
system  were  fostered  in  those  States  and  found  eloquent  ad- 
vocates and  a  strong  and  oftimes  a  dominant  party.  To  these 
influences  were  united  those  views  of  philanthropy,  which, 
taking  shape  in  England,  under  Wilberforce  and  his  adherents, 


A  SERMON.  19 

found  a  ready  home  in  this  land  of  freedom,  as  it  loved  to 
call  itself,  and  gave  rise  in  the  one  State  to  the  Colonization 
Society,  and  in  the  other,  to  a  scheme  of  gradual  emancipa- 
tion.    It  is  but  a  little  while  since  those  States  began  to  recog- 
nize  any   danger   from   the   encroachments   of  the   Federal 
Government,  or  could  perceive  any  lasting  michief  to  grow 
out  of  Free-soil  principles.     They  were  not  ripe,  therefore,  for 
action  when  we  acted,  and  although  many  of  the  young  and 
ardent,  who  had  imbided  the  re-actionary  spirit  in  favor  of 
State  sovereignty  and  of  slavery,  rushed  with  ardor  to  our 
banner,  the  men  of  the  old  school,  of  the  Whig  regime,   of 
the  philanthropic  party,  conceived  it  to  be  a  causeless  rebel- 
lion, and  were  as  ardent  for  the  Union  as  the  most  devoted 
Eepublican  of  the  North.      It  was  a  struggle  between  the 
young  and  the  old,  between  the  new  doctrines  and  those  of 
the  past,  between  traditions  circling  around  idolized  names 
and  mischiefs  which  were  gradually  forcing  themselves  upon 
the  public  mind.     It  required  a  year  of  Black  Republican 
legislation,  unmodified  by  the  conservative  Southern  element 
and  a  year  of  Black  Republican  domination,  to  turn  the  scale 
fully  in  our  favour.     God  wisely  kept  us  back,  by  his  inscrutable 
guidance,  from  invading  those  States  a  year  ago,  and  we  can 
now  understand  why  the  first  battle  of  Manassas   went  so 
strangely  and  mysteriously  unimproved,  and  why  defeat  so 
thickly  pursued  us  in  the  West.     It  was  that  the  presence  of 
Northern  armies  might  discipline  the  people  for  a  thorough 
union  with  the  South  and  might  bring  them  more  heartily 
into  the  support  of  the  institution  he  was  protecting.     And 
when  he  perceived  that  the  effect  had  been  produced,  he  led 
us  back  to  that  very  field  of  Manassas  where  we  had  paused 
in  the  full  career  of  victory,  and  placed  us  under  almost  the 
identical  circumstances  of  triumph,  as  if  He  said  to   us   in 
words,  "  A  year  ago,  my  people,  I  placed  my  bit  in  your 
mouths  and  restrained  you  from  advancing  to  a  work  not  then 
prepared  to  your  hand,  but  now  I  have  made  it  ready  and  the 
hearts  of  the  people  are  willing  in  the  day  of  my  power.    On- 
ward to  your  work,  and  gather  in  to  the  arms  of  your  Con- 


20  A   SERMON. 

federacy  the  utmost  verge  of  slavery,  that  the  world  may  see 
that  I  am  the  God  who  disposes  all  things  according  to  the 
purpose  of  my  will." 

We  have  great  cause,  moreover,  to  be  thankful  to  Almighty 
God  that  he  has  restrained  the  powers  of  Europe  from  any 
interference  in  our  behalf,  and  has  permitted  us  to  gain  these 
glorious  victories  under  his  auspices  alone.  It  was  highly  im- 
portant for  our  future  to  prove  the  strength  of  our  institutions 
and  to  convince  the  world  that  the  African  with  us  was  not 
a  source  of  weakness  or  an  object  of  fear,  but  was  a  comfort 
and  a  help.  And  in  no  manner  could  this  have  been  so  fully 
demonstrated  as  by  leaving  us  to  struggle  alone  with  the 
mighty  power  which  has  been  endeavoring  to  crush  us,  while 
this  people  was  in  the  midst  of  us,  almost  equal  in  numbers 
and  unrestrained  by  the  presence  of  armies.  :Tis  true  that  in 
some  districts  they  have  flocked  to  the  banner  of  freedom, 
which  they  consider  equivalent  to  idleness,  just  as  children 
would  rush  after  any  new  thing  or  boys  would  be  tempted  by  a 
holiday.  But  nowhere  has  any  disaffection  manifested  itself 
or  any  hatred  to  the  white  race  been  developed.  They  have 
mingled  freely  in  all  our  counsels,  have  been  restrained  in  no 
unusual  degree,  have  been  permitted  to  go  in  and  out  very 
much  as  they  pleased,  have  followed  their  masters  to  the  field 
and  been  faithful  to  them  in  danger,  in  suffering  and  in  death. 
They  have  shewn  themselves  a  docile,  and.  in  many  instances, 
a  most  affectionate  race,  and  have  sadly  disappointed  those 
who  counted  upon  their  alliance  and  co-operation.  This  cir- 
cumstance has  already  impressed  itself  not  only  upon  Europe. 
but  upon  our  very  antagonists,  and  they  have  been  forced  to 
confess  that  the  slave  was  not  as  read}*  to  embrace  freedom  as 
the}-  had  supposed  him.*     The  interference  of  European  pow- 


*  Mr.  Lincoln's  proclamation,  for  general  emancipation,  which  has  appeared 
since  this  sermon  was  delivered,  is  a  strong  proof  of  this  position,  for  surely  the 
iuvading  armies  of  last  winter  and  spring,  did  not  wait  for  any  proclamation, 
but  acted  out  the  principle  without  any  instructions  from  Washington.  As  our 
Lord  has  taught  us  all  to  pray  "  Lead  us  not  into  temptation,''  would  it  not  be 
well  for  the  State  Governments,  in  view  of  this  proclamation,  to  order  all  slaves 
to  be  removed  within  our  military  lines,  and  to  provide  the  planters  with  the 
means  of  doing  it,  under  certain  conditions  ?  The  loss  of  property  to  individu- 
als and  of  wealth  to  the  State  will  otherwise  be  very  great  this  winter. 


A  SERMON.  21 

ers  could  have  done  us  no  service  and  might  have  done  us 
great  mischief,  and  what,  at  one  time,  we  considered  injustice 
and  selfishness,  has  turned  out  for  us  the  richest  mercy.  We 
can  now  say  confidently  to  the  world,  "  God  has  protected  us 
in  the  hour  of  our  necessity  and  has  made  this  people,  whom 
you  calumniated  and  vilified  as  an  oppressed  and  down-trod- 
den people,  to  honor  us  in  the  face  of  all  the  nations,  and  to 
refute  for  us  the  slanders  of  politicians  and  the  lies  of  hypoc- 
risy. They  have  adhered  to  us  in  our  difficulties,  have  borne 
with  us  our  poverty,  have  comforted  us  in  our  sorrows,  have 
never  once  lifted  their  arms  against  us  and  now  testify  to  the 
world  that  our  culture  has  changed  them  from  savages  into 
servants,  from  barbarians  into  men  of  Christian  feeling  and 
Christian  sympathy." 

I  cannot  see,  as  yet,  the  termination  of  this  war.  because  I 
do  not  think  that  all  the  moral  results  have  been  produced 
which  are  to  come  out  of  it.  We  have  yet  much  trouble  be- 
fore us  and  many  trials  to  endure  ere  it  shall  be  ended. 
God  does  not  permit  his  creatures,  especially  those  who 
are  bound  to  him  in  the  bond  of  the  Christian  covenant, 
to  be  slaughtered  as  they  have  been  slaughtered  in  this 
war  without  meaning  to  produce  effects  adequate  to  the 
punishment.  If  the  armies  which  have  been  brought  into 
the  field  have  at  all  approached  in  numbers  what  they  have 
been  officially  reported  to  be,  then  I  cannot  be  far  wrong- 
when  I  affirm  that  already,  in  the  brief  space  of  eighteen 
months,  a  quarter  of  a  million  of  human  beings  have  been 
swept  away  by  disease,  by  wounds  and  by  death  upon  the 
battle  field.  What  a  terrible  reckoning!  It  cannot  be  for 
nothing!  And  it  must  go  on  until  England  shall  be  con- 
vinced that  slavery,  as  we  hold  it  here,  is  essential  to  the 
welfare  of  the  world,  until  the  North  shall  find  that  her 
fanaticism  was  a  madness  and  delusion,  until  we  ourselves 
shall  learn  to  value  the  institution  above  any  estimate  we 
have  ever  placed  upon  it,  and  to  treat  it  as  a  sacred  trust  from 
God,  until  all  shall  acknowledge,  with  one  consent,  that  it 
is  a  divinely  guarded  system,  planted  by  God,  protected  by 


22  A  SERMON. 

God  and  arranged  for  his  own  wise  purposes  in  the  future  of 
him,  with  whom  one  day  is  as  a  thousand  years,  and  a  thous- 
and years  as  one  day. 

And  above  all  do  I  believe  that  this  revolution  will  not 
have  finished  its  work  until  punishment  shall  have  been  rolled 
back  upon  that  fountain  of  evil  whence  have  sprung  all  these 
bitter  waters.  I  cannot  conceive  an}'  thing  more  hateful  to 
God  than  the  infidelity  which  has  revelled  in  the  Eastern 
States  for  the  last  forty  years,  having  its  centre  and  its  seat  in 
the  modern  Athens,  as  the  Bostonians  have  proudly  called 
their  city.  And  if,  as  the  Apostle  said,  the  mark  of  the 
Athenians  was  that  they  spent  their  time  in  nothing  else  but 
either  to  tell  or  to  hear  some  new  thing,  and  to  plant  altars  to 
unknown  Gods,  well  has  the  name  been  chosen  for  themselves. 
For  all  that  time  has  Christ  been  dishonored  and  discrowned  ; 
for  all  that  time  has  impious  reason  been  exalted  with  a  quiet 
superciliousness  above  the  word  of  God ;  for  all  that  time  has 
every  accursed  heresy  been  spued  out  of  the  mouths  of  men 
who  called  themselves  the  ministers  of  God.  Nothing  was 
too  monstrous  to  be  uttered,  nothing  too  vile  to  be  listened 
to.  One  would  affirm  that  Christ  was  a  philosopher  good 
enough  for  his  day,  the  legitimate  successor  of  Plato  and  of 
Aristotle,  but  that  the  present  times  required  a  Christ  more  ad- 
vanced in  philosophy,  and  especiallj'  in  the  philosophy  of 
abolitionism.  Another  would  declare  that  there  was  no  objec- 
tive God,  but  that  God  was  whatever  each  man  conceived  him 
to  be  within  himself,  that  is,  that  man  was  the  creator  of  God 
and  not  God  the  creator  of  man.  Another  would  impiously 
cry  out  against  the  God  of  the  Bible,  because  he  was  a  slave - 
holding  God,  and  against  Christ,  because  he  was  a  slave  ad- 
mitting Christ,  and  against  the  Bible  because  it  tolerated  and 
affirmed  the  system.  The  Holy  Ghost  was  utterly  discarded 
and  sinned  against,  until  the  great  mass  was  given  up  to 
delusion  and  a  lie.  And  out  of  this  defiled  nest  have  flown 
the  birds  of  evil  omen  who  have  scattered  discord  and  confu- 
fusion  over  the  land.  At  present  they  seem  to  be  reaping 
money — the  fruit  which  they  love,  but  which  the  Bible  calls 


A  SERMON.  2S 

the  root  of  all  evil — from  the  seed  of  their  planting.  War  is 
filling  their  coffers  and  they  are  riding  upon  the  highest  wave 
of  prosperity.  But  although  our  arm  may  not  reach  them, 
God  is  upon  their  track  and  ere  this  conflict  is  ended,  will 
bring  them  to  repentance  and  remorse  or  else  punish  them 
in  the  day  of  his  wrath.  "  Be  sure  your  sin  will  find  you 
out,"  is  a  law  which  never  goes  unfulfilled.  And  therefore  is 
it  that  I  have  placed  at  the  head  of  my  sermon  the  words  of 
the  wise  Solomon,  that  we  may  all  this  day  draw  the  proper 
distinction  between  exulting  over  an  enemy  and  offering  praise 
and  thanksgiving  to  God  for  his  wrath.  "  Rejoice  not  when 
thine  enemy  falleth,  and  let  not  thine  heart  be  glad  when  he 
stumbleth  :  Lest  the  Lord  see  it  and  it  displease  him  and  he 
turn  away  his  wrath  from  him."  Let  us  not,  by  any  improper 
exultation,  turn  away  God's  wrath  from  our  enemies,  and 
especially  from  these  wretched  infidels,  the  harbingers  of  war, 
of  woe,  and  of  anarchy.  Let  our  thanksgiving  be  one  of  deep 
solemnity  and  deep  humility,  looking  upon  God's  movements 
in  our  behalf  with  awe  and  waiting  for  him  to  inflict  his  wrath, 
in  his  own  good  time,  upon  his  own  revilers  and  the  despisers 
of  his  son.  He  will  arrange  it  all  and  if  you  will  watch  upon 
his  wrath  you  will  say,  "Great  and  marvellous  are  thy  works, 
Lord  God  Almighty  ;  just  and  true  are  thy  ways,  thou  King 
of  saints." 


